Gotham under Seige
by Mason705
Summary: When Robin is called into action to fight alongside his mentor once more, he must leave his team in Jump to return to his former home, where he quickly realises how easy he's been having it. Tonight, Gotham City is owned by the criminals, and Batman and Robin must take it back. But as the night wares on, a question looms over Robin: do I call in the Titans, against Batman's wishes?


**Part 1**

 **Welcome to Gotham**

"You should have told us before you left, would it kill you to write a note?" Cyborg counseled over the other end of Robin's communicator. His team's disgruntled faces glowed out of the holographic screen that shone from his glove. New Wayne tech, similar to what's in the Batsuit, had just been added to Robin's new outfit.

"I was needed, quickly," Robin growled. It had already been a long, long night and it seemed the action was due to continue into the day as well. He'd only just found the time to contact his team, at eight thirty in the morning.

"So quickly, in fact, that you threw yourself out of a seventh story window, redressed AND left your bike behind?" Beast Boy asked.

"I was picked up," Robin said, glancing to his mentor. Robin had known it was an emergency as soon as he'd seen the Batwing hovering outside the tower over twelve hours ago. Batman motioned for him to get on with it.

"I gotta go. Cyborg, you're in charge till I get back."

"We can help you, Robin," Starfire urged him.

"Yeah, Jump will last a few hours without us, and we can call in the Titans East to-"

"No," Robin cut Beast Boy off. Batman was quite clear about wanting to keep the titans at Jump. "You're needed there, and Gotham needs me here." The sound of gunfire rang out across the otherwise quiet streets of Gotham as a convoy of five cars appeared around a corner. "I've got to go. Stay in Jump City, that's an Order."

"Robi-" the sound of Starfire's voice cut out as he ended the communication.

"Robin!" Batman called as he dropped from the rooftop above. He sighed as he threw himself off the gargoyle that he'd been perched on, and plummeted downwards.

A dozen things ran through his mind as the cars came closer: the G-forces, the power of the wind, the speed of the cars. He spread out his cape as he pulled up, gliding through the air like a bird - a commodity he'd missed out on in Jump - diving and dodging overhanging signs as he neared closer to the vehicles below.

He'd become soft in Jump. All night he'd needed to be hitting harder, faster, more brutally, as he slowly remembered where he was. Being with the Titans was no vacation, but the weight of Gotham City had crashed down on his shoulders like never before and Batman had told him to pull his head in.

This all went through his mind as he pulled up sharply and dropped down onto the second car, forcing two birdarangs through the roof to hold on. If nothing else, he'd missed the unified cry of goons echoing his name before he beat them senseless.

"Who is that?"

"Is that… Robin?"

"The reports were right! Bird boy's ba- argh!" the thug in the front passenger seat grunted as Robin's feet connected hard against his face as he swung himself impossibly through the open car window.

Years of training came into play as he pulled the driver's handgun from him and kicked his way into the back, his feet hitting the steering wheel sending the car veering to the left as he cracked the gun against the skull of the gunman in the back right seat and chopped at the throat of the man to his left, karate style. The three men were unconscious within the few seconds he'd been in the car.

He wrapped his legs around the neck of the driver, pulling himself back into the front as the man desperately tried to keep the car on the road. A quick glance in the rearview mirror showed him that Batman was halfway through the car behind him. That left the one in front and the two behind Bats. Robin elbowed the driver in the head and then repeated the action once more, drawing blood on his scalp and forcing him into a deep, albeit painful sleep.

He pulled himself through the front passenger window, his foot looped inside the steering wheel as he steered the car to the side, and pulled a specialised birdarange from his utility belt and threw it. It arched across the street, narrowly missed a street light and disappeared underneath the car in front, magnetically attaching itself to the bottom of the vehicle.

"Tracking now, master Greyson," Alfred's said through his earpiece.

"Thanks Al," Robin replied as he grappled at a high up balcony, and flew out the car window as it came to a stop at the side of the road. He swung over Batman's head as he was cutting open the roof of the forth car with his bladed gauntlets.

Robin crashed through the windscreen of the car at the back. The goons barely knew what hit them. His boots connected with the throats of the men in the back as he tore through the car, and simultaneously gave the men at the front equal treatment with his elbows. The savage kicking and punching that followed finished off the thugs, and no more than twenty seconds since he broke into the car, it eased to a stop.

Robin pulled himself out of the vehicle from the front, casually wiping the blood off his cheek where he'd been nicked by a shard of glass. He jogged up to Batman, who was standing atop the car he'd just dispatched.

"I'm tracking them," Robin said as he pressed a button on his utility belt and the roar of the closely following R-cycle made itself known as it sped towards him, closely followed by the Batmobile.

"Good, follow," Batman said, as he entered his black bat speed machine. Robin mounted his cycle and put on the red helmet that was hooked to the front, then he sped off behind the less than subtle roar of the batmobile.

"The informant had better be in that car, it's our only lead," Batman said over their communicators.

"Yeah, but it's unlikely. Who keeps their VIP in the front car? Maybe Cobblepot swapped the routes or… we need a backup plan." Robin heard the short, angry growl that prepared him for the upcoming bat-rant that he'd heard so many times before. He'd known what he had said wrong right after saying it, of course: how dare he suggest that the Batman didn't have a backup plan?

"This is the backup plan," Batman said. Robin clicked his tongue.

"What about the backup plan for our backup plan?"

"This is our last backup plan." Robin thought hard. The last night had all merged together into a blur of violence, arsen, robbery and chaos. Since he'd been picked up, he'd held the line at the GCPD HQ for over an hour, stopped Joker's goons from escaping Ace Chemicals with gallons of volatile chemicals, stopped the bombing of Mercy Bridge while Batman saved Perdition Bridge, prevented the mass break-out of Arkham Asylum, captured and interrogated Two-Face, which lead them to the Iceberg Lounge and onto Cobblepot's trail… Robin yawned.

"If this Michael Hennings isn't in that car, we just go back to the lounge and get the other routes from Penguin's boys-"

"They would've long since cleared out by now."

"Right. But what about the Riddler lead?"

"We don't have time for him right now. We need to get Gotham back under control first."

"Steeljacket? Catman? Catwoman? KGBeast? Huh, never thought I'd say that stupid name again…"

"Gotham first."

At 7:30pm yesterday, the major crime bosses of Gotham - Joker AKA John Doe, Penguin AKA Oswald Cobblepot, Two-Face AKA Harvey Dent and Black Mask AKA Roman Sionis - had joined together in a joint crime spree. At once, they had hit the Mayor's office, Gotham General and made an attempt at the GCPD, all serving as the perfect distraction for the real targets: mass breakouts at both Blackgate Penitentiary and Gotham State Penitentiary.

It didn't take long for the big three to turn on Sionis as evidenced by his body being spread out in front of the Sionis steel mill and his men either killed or dissolved into the other three gangs. They then quickly mobilised all over Gotham, taking back old hideouts like Joker's Funland and Penguin's Iceberg Lounge, while Two-Face took control of City Hall and offed the mayor. The police were outnumbered ten to one, and that was before the GCPD attack. The city belonged to the scum, but not for long.

"We'll take our city back, Bruce. But the Titan's _could_ -"

"They are not ready for Gotham. We need precision and planning. Cyborg and Starfire are too destructive and Beast Boy is just a child."

"I was just a child once, Bruce." There was a brief silence. The Batmobile drifted hard around a corner, kicking up dirt and licking the road with flames from the exhaust. In an attempt to match Batman's road style, Robin grappled a streetlight and left a skidmark on the side of a building as his R-cycle lifted into the air and around the corner, seemingly weightless. He had to ask Batman what alloy this new cycle was made of; the paint was barely dry when he rode it out of the cave. He released the grapple at just the right moment and landed smoothly besides the Batmobile.

"You had the strength and resolve to stand up when Gotham gave you it's worst. Beast Boy is too immature, Gotham will crush him, and if not, it will certainly change him. Do you want him to become like us?" Robin said nothing, but he knew what Batman meant. They both lived with a darkness inside them, it's part of why they can do what they do.

"I don't want that for them. What about Raven?"

"If we take her with us, the others will surely follow. We don't need help."

"What about the Justice L-"

"Enough, Robin. They all have their own homefront's, and it's our responsibility to take back ours. There will be no more discussion about this."

 _Stubborn,_ Robin thought. _But is that the only reason why it's just us out tonight?_ It had been a tiring night. Long, brutal, bloody, draining, but also invigorating. He knew it was going to be hard going back to Jump after this.

 _Maybe I'll suggest staying after all this is over, just to help Bruce round up all the escapees. After all, about half the crims we'd ever caught have just been released, and the police are undermanned._ He dismissed the thought. Surely the Bat would send him back to Jump City - back to the Titans - before the next night. But he had to admit that despite the cuts and bruises and looming tiredness, he was having a great time, even with Gotham under threat like it was.

He missed being the partner rather than the leader, a realisation that surprised him. But being the partner ( _partner_ , not _sidekick_ ) meant that he didn't have to give the orders, think ten moves ahead or take responsibility for anybody else's actions except his own. Then again, being leader meant that he did get to give the orders, he got to decide how he and his team would operate, and he was responsible for something bigger than Batman's back, so he was conflicted.

"Inbound," Batman alerted Robin, pushing him from his thoughts. The last car was just ahead and he prepared for evasive movement as the two backseat gunmen rolled their windows down and leaned out, assault rifles ready. Calculations ran through Robin's mind.

 _Two gunmen, both wielding 1947 model Avtomat Kalashnikovas._ Robin smiled as he twisted his body, forcing his featherweight motorcycle into a sudden spin. Bullets rushed past him.

 _AK-47s, classic._ He controlled his movement as he slipped his grapple gun from his belt. He tipped his bike over in high speed, a mere nanosecond away from his body touching the road.

700 rounds per minute. Perceived gunmen accuracy: dumb and dumber. Plan of action: wing it.

He activated the R-cycle's duel jump thrusters and aided by their added velocity he launched himself off of his cycle and soared into the air, landing on the roof of the car with ease. He would be counseled by Batman afterwards; he'd acted without permission, and the Batmobile was forced to retreat as there was nothing that car could do for the time being without endangering his protege further. It was up to the boy wonder, and he had no time to appreciate his creative maneuver.

He fired his grapple at the gunman to his right and it gripped around his arm. He retracted it and the wire rope ripped back into the gun violently. Snap! The man's arm broke backwards against the roof of the car and he screamed out a long curse. The rifle clattered to the road. He ducked down and released the grapple in a single, fluid movement, as the first few bullets from the gunman to his left flew centimetres past his head. He kicked at the barrel that peeked out of the window, and the gun retreated back inside the car. Robin's eyes widened.

"I hate this part." He flipped onto the bonnet as bullets tore through the roof of the car. He looked at the driver, who looked back at him. "Hello, Mr. Hennings." Cobblepot's informant grimaced and swerved the car wildly onto the other lane. Robin tumbled off to the left of the vehicle and grabbed at the backseat car window. He already had a birdarang in his right hand, and he pulled himself in to meet the gunman with what can only be described as Gotham city brutality.

The gunman roared out as Robin pulled himself in suddenly, stabbing violently with the razor sharp birdarang. Michael Hennings also yelled out as the same blade the pinned the gunman's wrist to the front seat just managed to cut at a tendon in his left shoulder. Then, grabbing the jacket of the now disarmed gunmen in the right seat, he pulled himself into him quickly, kicking off the door and breaking the man's nose with his forehead.

Robin squirmed himself around, kicking at the other man who was trying to reach the rifle that had fallen to his feet, while throwing blind fists and elbows at his other opponent. It didn't take long for them both to slump against the seats in front of them. Robin exhaled and reached for the rifle below him, before removing the magazine and clearing the chamber in a single gunshot that startled his informant, who was driving precariously with one arm.

"So, Michael," Robin started as he pulled himself into the front passenger. "There are multiple ways this can go." He pushed back his seat and kicked his feet up onto the dash, resting his hand on the birdarang that was still piecing the man's shoulder muscles.

"Go to hell, I'm not saying nothing to you, _sidekick_."

"Look, here are your options: you can keep driving and talk to me now, or I can force this car to a stop and let the big guy handle the interrogation and let me tell you, he isn't in a good mood," Robin forced out a light chuckle, then tugged the birdarang free from his shoulder, pulling it out of the gunman's wrist in the process.

"Gah! Piss off, kid! Go back to your cage and tell your handler he can go f-" Robin stabbed the already bloody birdarang into his leg, and he screamed out.

"Actually, I'm not in a good mood, either. Guess we're going for option two." Robin pulled a tiny syringe out of his utility belt, and pressed it into the man's neck.

"What the… hell…" he slumped against the wheel almost instantly.

"Hey, Batman, we free to _hang_ _out_ with this guy for a little bit?"


End file.
